The present invention relates generally to agricultural vehicles and more particularly to a vehicular forage harvester.
Forage harvesters usually comprise three essential principal components which include the cutting or pickup apparatus, a chopping device and, connected thereto, a discharge tube or crop chute which may have a baffle plate or crop deflector connected at its end which may be swung vertically, with a harvest vehicle being connected through a draw bar by means of a provided hitching device.
In agricultural vehicles of the type described, a transport or harvest vehicle may have a forage harvester operatively connected thereto or a drive unit may be connected to the forage harvester. In such vehicles, problems may arise during travel of the vehicle around a curved path. Particularly, during turning of the vehicle on a field or operating site, the crop chute of the forest harvester is to be guided in accordance with the swinging movements of the vehicular elements so that the cut material may be conveyed from the forage harvester into a wagon which may be connected thereto or a drive unit may be connected The cut material must be deposited into the trailer wagon despite pivotal relative motion between the wagon body and the vehicle in order to insure that the wagon is evenly loaded.
Guidance of the crop chute under such circumstances will require the permanent attention of the driver and will depend upon the skill of the driver. Because of the fact that the driver may be required to perform other necessary tasks, it may frequently occur that harvested material is lost because the crop chute is not readjusted at the appropriate time during turning operation.
The invention is directed toward the task of providing a device by means of which the crop chute may be automatically maintained in its adjusted position relative to the forage harvester during all swinging or pivotal movements of the harvest vehicle thereby relieving the driver from the task of maintaining appropriate orientation of the discharge end of the chute during turning. This will enable the driver to perform other tasks and will insure recovery of the harvested material without undue losses thereof.